Summary
Trump is firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees despite recent fatal air crashes, CNN reports.
The AFL-CIO says terminations were issued Friday, with affected staff possibly locked out of FAA facilities after Monday.
Aviation safety union PASS calls the cuts “dangerous,” especially after four deadly incidents in the past month.
Critics argue these moves risk public safety amid ongoing air traffic controller shortages.
As an aviator with a degree in aviation I can honestly say this. It’s a miracle it’s taken this long for something this bad to happen. No administration, from Regan onwards, has done anything about the ATC shortage (nothing effective anyway). I’m friends with controllers, I’ve been to several ATC facilities, what they do everyday is a fucking miracle. While it’s easy to point at the DC crash and the other subsequent crashes and say “see, Trump did it” the truth is far more nuanced and systemic than that. Also, in my opinion, the DC crash is 100% on the helicopter pilots.
Is what Trump doing now going to help the situation? Fuck no. We need more controllers. Better pay, better benefits, and more slots at the ATC academy.
I don’t think ignoring a systematic issue can be put on the same level as actively enabling it. sure, previous presidents haven’t helped much, which is asking for a tragedy to happen, but trump has been pretty much forcing them to happen with these cuts.
True. It’s going to be bad. But it’s hard to pin the blame on trumpmfor the past incidents. The firings just happened
The DC crash is interesting. Have you seen this video? https://youtube.com/watch?v=1IUJpRwzHZU
Seems like there were several factors. But we’ll need the black box analysis to know more.
The Helicopter pilot was certainly in the wrong place, but from their point of view, it’s understandable why they were in the wrong place.
The question is, did the controller give clear guidance?
And would a second pair of eyes on the situation have helped?
The Helo pilot said the words “traffic in sight…” In the world of aviation that is you saying “I am taking responsibility for traffic separation”. The controller isn’t in the cockpit, the controller has no choice but to take the pilot at their word. The pilot then followed that up with “…request visual separation.” Which is an even more assertive way of saying “I know what I’m doing, I am responsible for separation”. He said it twice. The ATC system is built on multual trust in eachother and professionalism.
The question “did the controller give clear guidance” is moot. The pilot took responsibility for traffic separation. At that point ATC is not responsible for traffic separation. If I want ATC to take responsibility for my safety I say “(Plane call sign) is looking for traffic” then ATC tells me desend, turn, speed up, slow down, etc…
As if the shitty Boeings they are allowed make aren’t enough to cause crashes.
I propose having no covfefe available to neither pilots nor controllers. Also, all airplane flight alarms should call the pilot derogatory names.
That would help things tremendously. We are looking for ways to improve chaos right?
Of course, but the AmeriKan attitude is do more with less.
…The Capitalist attitude… FTFY. This isn’t an exclusively American problem.